Bareback Pads

What is the purpose of a bareback pad?

To keep your butt clean.

With a higher quality pad, such as the Baretek, it also offers some additional shock absorption for horse and rider, and perhaps additional security.

easier on your bum :)

Yes, I have known people who have gotten dragged and died riding in those kinds of pads.

I ride long hours on my pad too. I like taking a canteen and lunch sometimes, but have nowhere to put that....

You could definitely attach a canteen to one of the D rings. And a small lunch would fit in a cantle bag.

This is why I always advise the use of safety stirrup whenever someone has an older closed-ring style treeless saddle. Sadly, not an option with a bareback pad that has stirrups....... dangerous.

I used one with stirrups as a teenager and got tangled up in the stirrups when I fell off once. I wasn't dragged, but it definitely scared me. I thought, "what are stirrups for anyway, if you can't use them to get on?"
I had no training, didn't know how or why to post, and usually ended up kicking them off anyway, so I just removed them from my pad.

That's part of why I don't like saddles. I feel safer on a bareback pad, which everyone tells me is nuts. But, with a bareback pad, if you fall off, you just slide away from the horse with nothing in which to get caught. I have fallen off my horse recently (don't talk on your cell phone while riding, LOL!), I was on my pad, and I just slid to the ground standing up. My horse stopped right next to me, allowing me to lean on her. Course, I might not have fallen off if I was in a saddle. Hard to say...

I am not sure what I would do with stirrups if I had them, but I have always hated them to be honest.

And it won't pull the Baretek to one side?

EXACTLY!!! I had to laugh when I read the post about "if you're riding right you don't use your stirrups." What are they for then??? I too feel so much safer without stirrups and without a saddle. When I was young I was riding a mutton withered draft cross around a jump course... he started bucking and spinning and I lost my balance and tried to save myself by putting weight in my stirrups.... needless to say, the saddle went under his belly and I came off. I have never trusted an ill-fitting saddle since. If I'm riding someone else's horse with their ill-fitting tack that slips, I will kick my feet out of the stirrups and ride that way. And I always use a breastplate with a treeless saddle.

Anyway, to answer your question, I doubt a canteen would cause the saddle to slide, unless your canteen holds several gallons. After all, your butt is on the Baretek. The Baretek is very secure, especially if you add a breastplate. Of course I wouldn't pull myself up on my horse using the Baretek, but I've never had side to side slippage problems with the Baretek pad itself. The wrong pad under it might cause the pad to slip if the horse has a physical imbalance, such as asymmetrical muscling.... does that make sense? I can't rootch the Baretek to one side or the other like I can by leaning in one stirrup on a treed saddle. I have had it slide back on a very high withered horse, but again the correct underpad fixed that issue.